Structures which contain business or industrial facilities such as offices, warehouses and the like, as well as multiple unit residential buildings, usually include a variety of building wide types of systems to provide a variety of services to the individuals present in the respective structures. These include environmental control systems such as heating and air conditioning, water supply, electrical systems, lighting systems, and the like. Additional types of systems include environmental monitoring systems such as fire alarm systems, gas detection systems, security systems, as well as various types of radio and video repeater systems for the purpose of improving communications within the respective facilities.
Knowledge of the operation of the status of the above types of systems is particularly useful and important not only for facility management, but also for first responders in the event of a fire, electrical or other emergency on the premises. It would thus be desirable to be able to quickly ascertain the operational functionality of various service providing systems within the facility. Preferably such information could be brought together and provided at a centralized location readily accessible not only by facility management, but also by the first responders.
There continues to be a need for such a system monitoring equipment not only for new construction, but also as upgrades to existing systems in previously constructed facilities. Preferably installation of such monitoring systems could be achieved cost effectively without major reconstruction or modeling of the respective facilities.